Groupon.com Says No To Google & Its $6 BILLION Dollars

by

I had a domainer write me today and tell me he couldn’t believe I had turned down $100,000 offer on a domain.

Tonight theStreet.com and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that Groupon.com has said NO.

No to Google

No to $6 Billion dollars.

Lets see.

I think its sounds worse if I write it like this:

Groupon says no to $6,000,000,000.

Yup, I was right, it does sound worse.

You guys do know that Groupon wasn’t even in existence 2 years ago right?

If you want to read more you can do so here.

Personally I’m going to throw up and call it a night.

By the way I think Google lucked out.

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. TheBigLieSociety says

    “Groupon says no to $6,000,000,000”

    Groupon says no to $6,000,000,000 CHUMP CHANGE in San Francisco

    Meetings starting on doling out new TLDs to the insiders.

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    San Francisco California, December 8-9, 2010

    Brought to you by the Internet Society, the first ever Internet ON (ION) event is designed to enable network, product and service engineers to stay ahead of the curve in terms of understanding and deploying emerging Internet technologies. It also presents them with a unique opportunity to discuss Internet standards with the people who helped create them.

  3. The Domaining World At A Glance says

    the Groupon managers’ goal might be:

    a) prefer a company’s IPO rather than sell to Google

    b) try to receive an even bigger offer from Google

    if your pick is b) what do you think will be its final price?

    $7 Bn ?

    $8 Bn ?

    $9 Bn ?

    $10 Bn ?

    more?

  4. TheBigLieSociety says

    GAME.ON
    GROUP.ON

    ://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/#

    .OM country-code Oman
    Oman Telecommunications Company

    .ON

    .ORG generic Generic top-level domain
    Public Interest Registry (PIR)

    ===========================

    ITS.ON
    ://www.isoc.org/ion/

  5. LS Morgan says

    Windhandel.

    The people at G are much smarter than I am, though, so I guess they see something in that company (at that price) that I absolutely, positively don’t even begin to see. We’ve apparently returned to 1998.

  7. permalink says

    i’m with mhb. this seems totally insane.

    my read is that google, with it bird’s eye, real-time view of the web, has cause to believe the market for obsessive bargain hunters is worth 6BB and probably much more.

    but would anyone expect groupon on its own can extract that much value? and would anyone think that any further offers they get will be as much or more than what goog offered?

    nuts!

  10. jeff schneider says

    Hello Mike,

    Throw up or not ? Google has the brightest visionary talent in the world. They know what attracts traffic. They can always buy traffic initiators and change the name address in the future. I agree with You the name Groupon sucks.

    Gratefully, Jeff

  13. LS Morgan says

    Groupon understands their market; whimsy and novelty being a large part of their marketing aesthetic. A such, a group-coupon operation coming from this strategic perspective is pretty damn well served by a brand name like ‘Groupon’.

    While Deals.com or Bargains.com are great domain names, marketers understand the value of a whimsical brand, when appropriate. Here, it was clearly appropriate, as evidenced by a $6,000,000,000 offer from the people who understand the most about online marketing, and $6,000,000,000 declined by the operation using the domain name that would’ve received a “reg fee” appraisal by the basement-dwellers on various domain name forums.

    My personal gut feeling is that Groupon is a supernova that burst big but will eventually burn out- don’t know if that kind of pricing is appropriate (I mean, when you look at the companies that could probably be bought for $6b, it’s shocking that Groupon received an offer like that), but the braintrust @ G is smarter than I am and knows a lot more about that company that we do.

  14. Scott Alliy says

    I am still wondering why some of our names relating to weekly flyers and a free price quotes platform are still in our posession. Apparently time honored proven traditions are not valuable to todays moves and shakers but a two year old as yet unproven initiative with a suspect name is worth 6 bil or more if you ask the owners apparently.

    Then again Twitter has announced a new round of funding (to me it means they need money) and in the process its value cap gets raised????

    Can’t figure it out and wish I could stop trying LOL

  15. Rick Schwartz says

    I think Groupon is a very clever name that says a lot.

    For the $6 Billion…..I can see it a few ways. First of all it is a pretty easy concept to copy so the money sounds good.

    On the other hand it is a threat to Google as advertisers by pass them completely and spending those $$$ via Groupon.

    If Groupon sells out, then Google does what giants do. They stifle innovation and competition.

    And…..$6 Billion today with the likely inflation we might see coming could turn into a lot less.

    I for one am glad they did not sell regardless of the dollars. It’s the competition that trumps the $$$.

    Would it be a good or bad thing to have Google swallow up Groupon, Facebook and Twitter? And the next 10 hot companies that come down the pike?

  16. James says

    Unbelievable that they turned it down. People were saying a few weeks ago that $3 bn was too much.
    But then again how many of you domainers accept the first offer – we all try and squeeze a few more bucks out of the deal.

  18. Ryan says

    TechCrunch reported that Groupon is supposedly on a run to pull in $2 billion dollars so that explains the price. No real numbers were givin and that’s the reason everyone was saying it was overvalued.

    In addition they hold 78% of the group buying market which is awesome considering the clones that pop up everyday. Also, they are the fastest growing company in history bigger than Walmart, Apple, Microsoft etc. To a billion dollars. So I would say the $6 billion price tag was a solid deal.

    This is the first company that has built a solid online to offline marketing model. That market is valued at a Trillion+ dollars. They are the clear leaders so far.

  19. Sean Patrick says

    Groupon has been able to scale more quickly than any tech company in history thanks to 50% margins. If they think that’s going to continue they’re wrong. In fact they are already preparing for margin shrinkage by offering local businesses a way to have their own branded deals (promoted outside of Groupon) for just a 10% piece. Essentially giving a business owner the ability to have a “Groupon Store” tied into their website… Deal feeds (like Twitter), not going to do it either.

    Mainstream media has celebrated their success and made the founder Andrew Mason out to be a quirky genius with a goofy sense of humor. He might now be viewed as more of a greedy pig than anything else. This could be thepoint where things shift and the media starts reporting that some business owners and consumers aren’t so in love with the daily deals. There’s a lot that is wrong with their business model.

    Most businesses can’t afford to take a 50% hit over and over. And the consumer who is really most interested in the “daily deals” aren’t really the customers you want anyway.

    A year from now I think this will be looked at as a giant mistake and they’ll regret it. Should have taken the money.

  20. Chad Hayworth says

    LS Morgan,

    I concur completely with your “whimsical-novelty” comments regarding the genius behind the branding angle taken by Groupon. There is a definite art to branding and marketing; and from my perspective, most smart business-people with a great product or service simply lack the artistic tools required to create that *spark* of interest in the consumer marketplace.

  23. jp says

    It only makes sense if Rey turned it down just to piss off google on principle alone, but even ten ridiculous. How many people would be splitting the 6B? It’s in erupt though right? Heavy taxes there I think. Maybe only 30% after taxes? I’m reaching here

  24. jp says

    Maybe google just really liked it because it starts with a G? Maybe groupon just knows that google wants it sooooo bad

  26. joe says

    i think sean patrick has it right.
    maybe groupon is essentially just a really lucrative email list of people who are ready to purchase. and maybe yahoo or google, with their expertise, could turn that into fast cash.
    could it be so simple? an email list worth money? “opt-in” spam that actually generates consistent revenue? no, that would never work. that’s like, web 1.0, 1995. right. try signing up for one of these group buying services without an email address. i’ll bet you can’t do it.
    alas, these people on the groupon list are interested in one-time deals and, i’d argue, in general they are not typically loyal, return customers. they’re deal hunters. along with the 50% split the merchants have to agree to, that’s probably a reason why many local businesses are not too keen repeating with groupon after they’ve done it once.
    moreover there will only be increasing competition in this group buying space, now that it’s being proven as viable. anyone can copy the model and improve on it, not to mention they can offer better terms to the local merchants. and you can bet the more people read about groupon’s success the more we’ll see such competitors.

  28. joe says

    almost forgot… the reason these email lists can be so good is that, while these folks might not be loyal customers of local businesses, many of them may be quite loyal to following a chosen web site. they might stay with groupon for quite a while even as more capable competitors emerge. you might call this the “aol effect”. some people have just stayed with aol throughout the years because “it works” for them. (facebook is probably hoping for the same effect, now that they have so many people signed up.) even though there may be much, much better deals available that would better meet people’s needs, it doesn’t matter. because, with certain services they don’t understand very well (perhaps group buying is one), these folks are not constantly looking to switch. it’s not their area of expertise. they find one option that works and just stick with it.

    they tend to not remove themselves from the lists or cancel their subscriptions.

  29. Landon White says

    See what happens when you get too attached to a Domain Name …

    Bad decison, they should have taken it!

  30. Anunt says

    am i the last one to join this groupon.com

    i just joined…cant wait to get some good deals.

    google needs to join groupon to get a deal on groupon.com

  34. Landon White says

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